Emergency Contraception and Menstruation

Emergency Contraceptives are a very strong form of birth control pills. It can be used by the woman to prevent conception after she had sex where semen got inside her vagina.

Its purpose is to halt the menstrual cycle as soon as possible to attempt to stop ovulation. If there is no ovulation, there is no egg, and if there is no egg, there cannot be any conception.

One of the common side effects of emergency contraception is withdrawal bleeding 5 to 7 days after taking it. The absence or presence of withdrawal bleeding does not mean anything. It is a purely hormonal reaction caused by the hormone withdrawal from the woman’s body.

Withdrawal bleeding is not menstruation. It is not driven by the woman’s normal fertility cycle. It is the same type of bleeding a woman on the daily contraceptive pill gets during the hormone-free week.

Withdrawal bleeding is most often like a normal period. It can have the normal menstrual signs or PMS, it can come with cramps and it follows a normal menstrual flow pattern (length, quantity).

After the hormones from the emergency contraceptives are gone from the woman’s body, her normal fertility cycle must restart again. There is no fixed or predictable pattern for this. Most often, the woman’s next menstruation is delayed, sometimes even for quite a number of weeks. Her menstrual cycles may also change after this (start date, regularity, length, flow, PMS etc.).

Emergency contraceptives are quite good at stopping ovulation. However, if the woman does not take it in time to stop ovulation, or if she already ovulated between the tie she had sex and a few hours after taking it, conception can still take place. She can test for pregnancy around 21 days after the sex took place. She should repeat the test 7 days later to confirm the previous result. She should however not expect to be pregnant.

The best and safest plan of action is still to take the necessary precautions before having sex.

More information on emergency contraception can be found on the University of Princeton site NOT2LATE: http://ec.princeton.edu/

You can find the dosages and names of birth control pills that can be used for emergency contraception here: https://www.cecinfo.org/country-by-country-information/status-availability-database/